is it me or my flute?

[girl-who-loves-her-flute]

I am a junior in highschool and play flute with the band and it might as well be screaming at me for help. My flute is an openhole, silver, and it was made in 1993. I am it's second owner, and have had it for a little less than three years. I'll spend hours polishing every inch of it by taking it apart and even polishing rods and keys practically every week. this flute is my soul mate, I just can't take it when it isn't playing as well as it could. I know when it's even a little bit off, and I want it sent in every time. heres what I know about flutes: keys should move at the exact same time, one shouldn't be able to move at all without the other moving to. You sholdn't feel hitches or find a key harder to press than another. worn pads, or ones with tears in the film covering or fibers sticking out need to be replaced,moldy pads need to be replaced immediatly. all keys must seal completely when pressed down. even a little space is a problem.one key should not be raised up higher or lower than the key beside it. if a rod is bent several keys won't close properly over the keyholes so the pads won't seal correctl. the A flat, E flat or trill keys don't raise up enough when pressed or raise too much your notes may not come out right. if keys lag it may be because the rod is too loose or too tight, oil is building up in the rods, the spring is bent or worn out. If a key is sticking you may want to press the pad down on cigarette paper with a little lighter fluid on it or a type of paper just as thin.you shouldn't have to press hard on keys or force out notes, it should be fluid and sweet. When you press down a key and look at it in front of a light, light shouldn't shine out from under the pad. all these effect sound. My mother doesn't want pay to replace all the worn and fraying pads on my flute at once though, or send the flute in unless the problem is extremely serious. There's only so much you yourself can do.

[wally]

Hi GWLHF,

What make/model flute do you have? When was the last time you had it tuned up?

I wouldn't get too carried away with the cleaning routine as there is an early point where the law of diminishing returns applies. It doesn't take much to keep things clean; you mainly want to be cleaning out the bore and lightly wiping down areas that get touched during use. Just a couple minutes max, after practice. Using a small, soft paintbrush or makeup brush to dust off areas under the keywork is also a good idea, but only occasionally necessary (say, every few months if not even less often).

Hours of cleaning every week may be overkill. And if you are removing keys from the flute to clean, you might be exposing the mechanism to undue wear and tear and *more* grime (from abrasive polishing compounds, etc.). If the flute is not playing up to your expectations, cleaning and polishing will not help. It will just be shiny. Now may be time to have it examined by a reputable flute doc. If it is 17 years old and has only been receiving checkups, it may need to be fully disassembled (de-pinned with keys pulled off their steels) for a complete relube; my understanding is that's usually part of a routine overhaul.

If $ is at issue (say, the flute itself is worth less than the cost of an overhaul), you have to consider your options. A flute that doesn't work properly will be holding you back. Do you fix it, buy a replacement, or buy tools and acquire skills to do the overhaul and maintenance work yourself? I'd say, if you love that flute and have a trusty flute tech in your neighborhood, you already know the answer.

[fluttiegurl]

girl-who-loves-her-flute,

You are very knowledgeable and have done a lot of research. However, you may have done damage to your flute yourself by taking the time to take it apart and over cleaning. You can also actually ruin the finish by doing so much polishing. Tarnish is normal, and taking the flute apart can cause a lot of issues such as bending keys (even a tiny bit), adding unneeded pressure to the key cups which can cause serious damage, exposing rods to dirt (which was mentioned earlier) which can cause a number of problems, and the list goes on. Even if you know a lot about the flute, you should never do this kind of work unless you are supervised by a tech at least the first time. In the future, leave the tarnish alone and let a tech take care of it when you take it in for a yearly check. Just be sure to swab it out when you play to avoid moisture build up and bacteria. Otherwise, cleaning to this extent is not necessary.

The best thing you could do at this point is have an overhaul done. It sounds like your meticulous grooming could have caused serious damage and it will require a tech to put it back into optimal playing condition. Just fixing some minor issues may or may not be worth the effort at this point. Otherwise, you are not going to get what you want from the flute and your playing will suffer.

[fluteguy18]

I do agree. Such meticulous cleaning if not performed by someone who is trained can easily lead to such damage. I know from first hand experience because I too have gone through this. When I got my Miyazawa I took very good care of it. But, because I didn't understand how to care for the pads (they are a special synthetic pad called Straubinger Pads that require special care), I ended up ruining almost all of them.

I was just wiping my flute down daily and cleaning the edges of my keys. It led to frayed and torn pads quite quickly. Combine that with improper cleaning techniques and it was a disaster. Fortunately my flute had to have some warranty work performed (a key had to be replaced because of a defect in the metal), they gave me a complimentary COA in which they replaced all of the pads that were torn, worn, or in less than perfect condition. This all happened within a year of owning my new flute that cost me nearly $5K USD. And unfortunately, all of it (except for the key defect) were my fault.